Willie Obiano cooked Peter Obi’s goose in Anambra

Sir: I am happy for Willie Obiano. Happy that he was re-elected as governor of Anambra State. His victory is good for our democracy. As much as god-fatherism is necessary in politics, loyalty should be to the people and state. Enough of godfathers who want their god-children to perpetually hold onto their apron-strings; the kind whose idea of mentorship is to pass down decisions to elected officials in a command and control fashion. What therefore makes it a democracy? Peter Obi, respectfully, is not my idea of a true democrat. His achievements bandied in the press notwithstanding. True democrats are idealistic and remain so in spite of changing times. They hold onto their beliefs as long as possible. When they waiver sometimes, because man cannot be 100 per cent idealistic, they give their followers reasons which they understand and empathize with.
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How can a former APGA chieftain announce the puritanism of another party? Did both parties have an ideological co-dependence from the first? Had he not forsaken the party that made him what he is, and campaigned for another candidate behind the scene, with reasons, I would have taken him seriously. But not in this instance when he began to haul-the-coal over the head of a governor that he helped to install and a party that brought him to national prominence. I wish Colonel Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu were alive to see how Peter Obi betrayed the party he swore never to betray. Obi’s antics are not new in Nigeria, especially in this fourth republic. Many ideology-less leftists engage in the disrobing attitude of berating parties that made them. George Bush (Republican) the 41st president of the U.S. voted for Hillary Clinton (Democrats) in the 2016 presidential elections for his own reasons but didn’t abandon the Republican Party. Many Republicans as well voted for Hillary due to the standoffish posturing of Donald Trump without abandoning the party.
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Obiano has proven that the welfare of Anambra State matter to him more than to be the servant to another politician who has become passé. Might we see the geese of other politicians cooked in other states? Wouldn’t that be good for our democracy? I wish the people in Kwara State could borrow a model from Anambra State. There is something called ‘people power’ in a democracy: The importance of ‘political power’ to the people.

Simon Abah, Abuja.